* Impressive result
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We hear little of SAVIEM in Britain because no vehicles of that name are exported to the UK—so I was understandably surprised to discover that Blainville built 26,000 goods vehicles -between 3.5 tons g.v.w. and 38 tons g.c.w. in 1967 (while Annonay turned out 1,777 buses and coaches).
The Blainville factory is remarkably clean and pin-neat inside and out, and so is the huge computer-controlled parts warehouse —where they use British Robotugs to go round in their ghostly fashion and pick up the spares. One fascinating 98ft-long machine in the production shops automatically drills all the holes in chassis mainframes; the drilling heads and control section travel along rails, bestriding the stationary sidemembers.
SAVIEM makes most of what it uses (the two machine shops house 1,900' machine tools) and is particularly proud of its anti-corrosion dip and painting plants.